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Commitment to the environment
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One of our priorities is the steady progress towards best environmental practices.
We are working on rationalising and lowering the consumption of resources, on managing waste and on protecting the environment..
Our environmental commitment is enshrined in El Corte Inglés Group's Sustainability Policy, which sets out the following principles:
- Minimising the consumption of resources in operating processes and using clean energies and eco-friendly materials.
- Helping alleviate the effects of climate change by making good use of, and preserving, natural resources, preventing contamination and striving to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and water footprint.
- Extending circular economy processes in our operations by promoting initiatives that complete the cycle to ensure waste is effectively reduced and to make the best use of resources.
- Preserving biodiversity of the ecosystems, landscapes and surroundings where the Group has operations.
- Encouraging collaboration with institutions, initiatives and systems designed to further this commitment.
The data endorse our commitment
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+190 EL CORTE INGLÉS STORES AND PLATFORMS ARE ZERO WASTE CERTIFIED
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94,7% OF WASTE RECYCLED AND REUSED WITH THE ZERO WASTE SYSTEM
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99,9% OF THE ELECTRICITY USED IN SPAIN WITH GUARANTEE OF RENEWABLE ORIGIN
Our management
Our environmental management is focused on four are:
Circular economy models allow us to recover the materials used so they can be reused or used as new raw materials.
Sustainable Packaging Plan
We have designed a Sustainable Packaging Plan given the need to use packaging the minimises the environmental impact of our business:
Ecodesign
Optimising resources
Controlling consumption
Communication and training
Our short-term targets:
- Reducing plastic packaging in the physical stores, in online orders and shipments by the 2025.
- Only using compostable, recyclable or reusable plastic in packaging (primary and secondary) by 2025.
- Cutting our supermarkets' plastic footprint by 5% a year up until 2026.
Zero Waste
The management system implemented and certified by AENOR has allowed 90% waste recovery and reuse, avoiding it ending up in landfill. Over 190 of the company's establishments and platforms hold this certification.
Our short-term targets:
Achieve Zero Waste certification for 100% of the El Corte Inglés department sores and logistic platforms and for the Supercor and Outlet stores before 2026.
Food waste
We are aware of the importance of promoting the prevention of food waste, of contributing to achieving the SDGs and complying with the regulatory framework. Our goals are focused on three areas: Prevention, redistribution, recovery & reuse, awareness raising.
- Adequate storage conditions from supplying the food to stock rotation.
- Over 4,810,000 kilos of food donated to social entities and Food Banks.
- 848,070 kilos of goods not fit for human consumption donated to zoos and farms.
- We are involved in producing sustainable beer using the unsold bread from some of our bakeries in Spain and Portugal.
- Awareness-raising actions on the need to reduce food waste.
El Corte Inglés is facing the great climate challenge by strengthening our commitment to a carbon neutral consumption production model:
- Measuring the carbon footprint: The Viajes El Corte Inglés Group, with the support of South Pole – a developer of climate projects and solutions –, offers a digital solution for its customers to measure the carbon footprint of their trips and reduce their impact thanks to offsetting the CO2 emissions.
- Net Zero Transition project: A Scope 3 measurement of the Group's emissions has been performed, as part of the Net Zero Transition project. That measurement includes all the emissions associated to our value chain, along with those that were previously being measured.
- Renewable energy purchase agreement: In 2022, we signed two long-term agreements to buy renewable energy (Power Purchase Agreement) with NoyFund and Eranovum. That power comes from two photovoltaic plants located in Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha). The installed power of both plants comes to around 330 MW, and they are able to produce slightly over 650 GWh/year of power.
Our goals:
Achieve climate neutrality by 2050; we are therefore striving to reduce and offset the emissions of our activity.
We have a Sustainable Water Management Policy that includes recommendations for efficient and responsible use of this product.
In the case of the water that we use at our establishments, it comes from the main water supply, which does impact on protected habitats.
As regards wastewater, we have a network of microbial fermentation biological and physical filtering treatment equipment. Furthermore, we also internally harness the reject water, such as water from the sinks of our centres, to be reintroduced into the circuit.
The Group's various companies have environmental management systems in place, which are often certified in accordance with international standards or other certification schemes..
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